While I do love the visual transition that Google is making with its apps, including Google+, I think that Facebook's UI is near perfect. It has come a long way with negative feedback after every update, but the fact is that it works. Facebook has an iconic look and feel that people have come to expect, while Google is building theirs out out from scratch, pretty late in the game.

The new "Circles" approach of organizing friends is something Google+ users will have to learn/get used to. We are generally good with adapting new methods, but there has to be an obvious "return" value. Why should we put effort into your new product when Facebook already works well?

"Facebook’s Groups were designed in a way to overcome the friend list problem. They’ve grown quickly, even if 95% of the user base can’t be bothered to make their own groups.... Create a Group feature, and let the 5% create the groups for the other 95%. It’s like Mechanical Turk, but we’re not getting paid." — Tom Anderson.

I've been using Google+ for several days now, and it's still confusing to me. I see absolutely no benefit to using Google+ at all, for now. I cannot communicate with whomever I want as easily as Facebook. More random people have added me in a couple of days than all the random requests from years of Facebook-ing.

One of Facebook's key goals is efficiency, as mentioned in the quote above. With no effort from most of Facebook's users, groups are built, allowing direct communication with specific people. This is a huge feature for me, and Google+'s "Hangout" feature is far from being an alternative. The same applies to Photos, Events, and Messaging.

Facebook has a user base of 750 million. Every feature that will ever launch will be instantly battle-tested, and as of today, Google+ isn't quite at that level. Some people say Facebook is ugly, but it seems they disregard critical usability points. Visuals alone will not build a social networking empire, but the combination of useful features will.

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The problem with Facebook's approach to Groups is giving an easy way in but a hard way out. If "usability" is such an important factor to Mr. Zuckerberg, an easy way out is as important as an easy way in.

As for Facebook's UI, to me it is overwhelming to say the least. For example, upon logging into Facebook, you pop directly to the News Feed. I can see why this is helpful for some, but if you have many friends, there is very little in the way of organizing or filtering the news to my preference.

To me, Facebook is just another tool, not a way of life as a lot of people have made it. I'm sure Google+ will be another tool I can use.

Frank, you make it seem like removing yourself from a group is drastic and tedious. How exactly is it hard to remove yourself from groups that you get added to? There's a "Leave Group" link on the very front page of a Group.

My philosophy with this whole "lists" thing is that, while it's nice to be able to sort news feeds by lists, it's just not that important to people! Believe me, if you want to know what someone had to say about something, you would visit their profile, if a Group wasn't already created for the purpose at hand.